Internet History & Development

Ray Tomlinson developed the @ email convention in the 1970s.

The Internet is the successor of a military computer network called ARPANET. It first expanded to included educational institutions and eventually led to the Internet. During that time, technological advances continued to improve the ways that people access the Internet.

Description

The Internet is a conglomeration of computer networks that communicate by using the same method of communication to share information. The information sharing standard is TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol).

Milestones

In 1969, researchers with the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency transmitted data from a computer at UCLA to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute. In 1983 ARPANET adopted the modern TCP/IP protocol. ARPANET shut down in 1990.

Development

In 1972, electronic mail was sent over ARPANET. The Domain Name System was introduced to the entire Internet, identifying domains as .com, .gov, .mil and other DNS extensions in 1984. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee began to develop the hypertext that will be used in future Web pages, eventually becoming HTML (hypertext markup language) that is still used in Web design.

Advancements

ARPANET first connected two computers in 1962. By 2000, Internet World Stats estimated there were more than 360,000,000 Internet users and estimates the number to be about 2 billion in 2010. Transmission speeds have also increased from 300 bps (bits per second) in 1962 to top speeds of 40 Gbps (40 billion bits per second) in 2010.

References

• Computer History Museum: Internet History
• Internet World Stats: World Internet Users and Population Stats
• Gadget Reviews: 40 Gbps - Fastest Internet Connection to a Single Home